You are here

DEVELOPMENT ROUNDUP // Developers reveal plans for 13th & Marshall, North Loop area

Share this:

August 15, 2011

By: Jeremy Zoss

Jeremy Zoss

SHERIDAN — After issuing a request for proposals (RFP) for the Grain Belt Office Building and an adjacent lot near 13th & Marshall, the city has received four separate pitches for the property, all of which include market-rate apartments.

The city has owned the land since 1989 and has long sought to develop the final remaining piece of the Grain Belt Brewery complex.

According to Sheridan Neighborhood Organization president Jenny Fortman, the neighborhood has not yet seen any of the plans and will hold a public meeting in September or October to review the plans.

The city of Minneapolis, however, has provided basic details of the four proposals.

St. Paul-based Everwood Development has pitched a project it is calling Grain Belt Terrace, which includes 150 market-rate apartments on the 1219 lot and a conversion of the Office Building into space for two unnamed tenants. The proposal would split the apartments across two small buildings and also includes an underground parking structure.

A similar plan was proposed by Minneapolis-based Diversified Equities Corp. Their plan, called the Brewery Square Apartments, would include 125 apartments, an underground parking structure and a mixed-use plan for the office building. Under this proposal, the office building would include a restaurant space, an event center, office and studio space, and four units of boutique hotel-style short-term housing.

Minneapolis-based Griffin Cos. would develop the site into 143 apartment units, with a mix of market-rate and affordable housing.

The final proposal was submitted by Minneapolis architectural firm the Collaborative Design Group and focuses on the Office Building alone.

It would redevelop the Office Building for non-residential use.

Jaguar site plan may include Whole Foods

NORTH LOOP — The grocery tenant lined up for the 222 Hennepin project at the former Jaguar dealership is Whole Foods, according to City Hall sources.

The proposal for the site, which still requires city approvals, calls for about 280 apartments and a 37,500-square-foot market. Minneapolis-based developer Ryan Companies U.S. Inc. has teamed up with the Excelsior Group on the project.

The former Jaguar dealership site has been envisioned as a site of a residential/retail mixed use development for years. In 2005, Seattle-based Milliken Development Group purchased the site and proposed a 290-unit condo building with Whole Foods as an anchor tenant.

Kate Klotz, a representative for Whole Foods, declined comment on plans for a store at the site. She said that Whole Food does not announce stores until leases are signed and that the company has no news of new locations in Minneapolis. However, she said: “We’re growing by leaps and bounds and Minneapolis is certainly a big area of growth for us.”

Ryan Companies has declined to announce details on the grocery store until the project goes before the Planning Commission.

There are plans for another grocery store on Hennepin, too. Construction is slated to begin on a new Lunds grocery store at 12th & Hennepin later this summer.

Hotel and entertainment complex planned for North Loop

NORTH LOOP — A redevelopment project has been proposed for an industrial section of the North Loop neighborhood north of Olson Memorial Highway — one that could bring a new hotel, retail strip and entertainment center to the area by 2013.

Designed by Lubben Architecture and Slick + Design, the development called “Project M” calls for a 164-room hotel, a 27,000-square-foot entertainment center and 400-stall parking structure.

According to architect Brian Lubben, the project is at an early stage. Plans have been presented to the North Loop Neighborhood Association, but no formal proposal has yet been made to the city.

Lubben Architecture has worked on a wide variety of projects in the past. While with architecture firm Walsh Bishop, Brian Lubben was part of the team that designed the Hotel Ivy.

“Our focus is to talk with the North Loop group,” Lubben said. “Obviously we want it to fit in with what they’re thinking for the neighborhood.”

A representative from the North Loop Neighborhood Association said they are interested in the project and look forward to seeing future versions of the plan. The nearly 4-acre site at 620 Olson Memorial Highway is currently leased by courier Velocity Express. According to Hennepin County property tax records, the site is currently owned by Irish Twin Cities LLC out of Oklahoma City.

The developer backing the project is in negotiations with the site’s owner to purchase the parcel, which is home to three single-story industrial buildings on the site. The redevelopment plan would demolish all existing structures and clean up industrial contamination of the land.

“That’s the main goal — to get the site acquired and to get the buildings demolished and the site cleaned up,” Lubben said. “We certainly want to take a view of what’s in Downtown and do something that complements what’s there. There’s a lot of entertainment in Minneapolis and we’d love to be a part of that.”

Hines planning apartments near Target Field

NORTH LOOP —A new development called Dock Street Residential has been proposed for a surface parking lot near Target Field.

The plan calls for 400 residential units and 21,500 square feet of commercial space at 333 Washington Ave. N., according to a city of Minneapolis news release. Hines is the developer behind the project.

The city is collecting comments on an environmental assessment of the project until Aug. 31.A new private road called Dock Street is also planned for the site.

The City Council’s Zoning and Planning Committee is tentatively scheduled to review the project on Sept. 15. For more information, go to minneapolismn.gov and search for “Dock Street.”

— Sarah McKenzie contributed to this repor PHOTO BY SARAH MCKENZIE

For a map of new development activity Downtown and in Northeast, go to journalmpls.com and click on “Properties in Play.”